Sagrario Gonzalez

In 1998 a young teenager by the name of Sagrario Gonzalez disappeared in Juarez on her way home from work at a maquiladora. Unfortunately, like so many other poor girls which had moved to Juarez from the interior of Mexico with their families to seek work in the American based maquiladoras of Juarez, 17 year old Sagrario was met foul play. Two weeks after her disappearance Sagrario's body was found in an abandoned lot. Although police believe that she had been raped before she was strangled and stabbed, her body was too decomposed to determine. To this day no one has been brought to justice for Sagrario's murder.

Determined to not let Sagrario and the other victims be forgotten, Sagrario's older sister Guillermina went on to form a grassroots organization called Voices Without Echo. Family members of other victims soon joined the organization with a goal of keeping the murdered women of Juarez in the headlines. The group began to paint black crosses with a pink back ground on utility poles around the city. I must admit I had seen the painted utility poles before but had no idea what their significance was. Sadly in 2001 Guillermina announced she would have to disband the group she founded, Voices Without Echo. She was now engaged to man who had lost a daughter from a previous marriage to a violent death also, and without any funding which had been promised to her for expenses it was impossible for her to continue the group. The group won many challenges for victims' family in the few years it existed but on 07/18/01 the group ceased all operations.

Research Topic

The Daughters of Juarez is a book I'm currently reading about the hundreds of girls that have been murdered just across the border from us mostly within the last 12 years. I wish I had already read the entire book so I could tell you more about it but unfortunately that's gonna have to wait until later.

As I read this book many different emotions are stirred up; sadness, frustration, but most of all anger. It is such an injustice that these girls are being taken away from their loved ones and nothing is done about it.

I'm still not quite sure how I will fit this into the rhetorical situation, any suggestions would be appreciated, but this is one of the topics that I want to continue to research for our final. I'm not sure what awaits me at the end of this road but I hope that I will be able to use this for something positive, even if that only means gaining more knowledge about the current situation and passing that on to others I know.

I think it is important for everyone to not only know what is going on in the world but also to be aware of what is going on in their own back yards and their community. Althouth Juarez is not technically part of El Paso I beleive, and some may disagree, that everything that happens there has an impact on us here in El Paso in one way or another and vice versa. Recently El Paso was in the national new because Hillary Clinton visited El Paso. I would much rather see El Paso and Juarez on national tv for something positive such as a Presidential nominee visiting our city rather than mass murder in our sister city.

Birthday

This past Saturday, 02/09/08, was one of my friends Adolfo's birthday party. Adolfo's birthday parties are always a lot of fun and something to look forward to each year. He always hires a dj and has free food and liquor for all of his guest. Of course I just don't go for the free food and booze. It's always an opportunity to see old friends that due to schedule constraints we don't get to hang out as much as we used to or would like to. These are just a few of my friends, in the first picture are Carlos Acero, myself, Carlos Izita, and Dimitri. In the second picture of the girls are Roseanne, Anna, and Karla



It seems as if his birthday has become some what of a holiday to those who know him because each year as his birthday approaches everyone keeps that day open and does everything within their power to attend. I would like to think it's the opportunity to get to see everyone from the past again that causes this but who knows? In any event, be it the free liquor, free food, or just the atmosphere itself it's always a lot of fun when a large group of old friends gets together again. We always end up talking about the past as if it were yesterday. At times our laughter was so loud that we drowned out the music.





This is the perfect opportunity for me to thank Adolfo for always hosting such a fun party. I know that you put a lot of effort, time, and most of all money in to your parties. Thank you Adolfo, I can't wait until next year!

reminder

This past Saturday, 02/02/08, when I got out of class at UTEP and since I was close to downtown El Paso, I decided to walk across to Juarez to buy a bottle of liquor as a birthday present for a party I was going to that night. This is something I have done so many times in my life I didn't give it much thought and figured it would be as easy as the hundreds of other times I've walked to Juarez. After being in class for three hours I thought I would kill two birds with one stone and buy a bottle of liquor for a lot less than it would cost me here in the U.S. and get some authentic mexican food to eat.



The only problem was that starting this year a passport is now required to re-enter the U.S. from Mexico. If you don't have a passport you can still get back using your drivers liscence and your birth certificate. After so many years of going to Juarez and only having to say "American" or "U.S. citizen" to get back it totally slipped my mind that rules had changed. Needless to say I had neither my passport or my birth certificate with me.



The nice U.S. Customs official; after interrogating me as if i was a criminal and scolding me like a five year old, handed me a bulletin explaining the new rules and finally let me go. So let this serve as a reminder to anyone else who may be planning on going to Juarez in the near future, remember to take your passport or drivers liscence and birth certificate. Trust me, it will save you a lot of heartache and not mention time!